Nerves raw for Obama's trip to Gulf

When word surfaced last week about President Barack Obama’s plans for a trip to New Orleans, Gulf Coast newspapers and politicians immediately complained that the visit was too short.

“That’s it?” wrote The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune.

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“Why are we invisible?” wondered Mississippi’s Sun Herald newspaper.

And Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, Obama’s fellow Democrat, last Thursday issued this politely worded critique: “If this visit is too brief, it will not afford the president the opportunity to see firsthand the impact that an effective and committed administration can have on rebuilding neighborhoods and communities.”

Media reports last week suggested that Obama was planning to come to New Orleans only for a town hall meeting and a second, unspecified event. The White House announced Friday that Obama will host a town hall and visit a charter school — for a total of about four hours. But Landrieu now says she’s pleased the town hall event will give the public a chance to bring directly to Obama its concerns about the effort to rebuild the city four years after Hurricane Katrina

All of the critiques add a layer of political tension to Obama’s New Orleans trip this Thursday, his first to the region since he was sworn in as president. Not only will he have to deal with the tangled cultural and economic legacies of the hurricane and its aftermath, but he will have to prove to area residents that he’s still as focused on their needs as he was during the presidential campaign.

“The president made a promise to come to the Gulf Coast and wanted to fulfill that promise as soon as his schedule allowed it,” said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro. “He also wanted to host a public event so that he could talk to residents directly about their thoughts and concerns.”

Obama will bring some backup when he arrives: He’ll travel with three Cabinet secretaries who will fan out across the city at events of their own Thursday: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

What’s more, the White House points out that Obama has been to New Orleans five times since Katrina, in trips before he was elected in 2008. Aides say he’s had plenty of opportunity for thorough tours of the damage from the hurricane and has even had the chance to indulge in the local culture — eating gumbo at the restaurant Dooky Chase in 2008 and attending services at First Emanuel Baptist Church during a visit in 2007 that included tours of the wreckage and briefings from officials.

White House officials also argue that as president, Obama has cleared bureaucratic hurdles to Gulf Coast assistance, allowing more than $1 billion in federal aid to flow to the area. But nerves are still raw. The Times-Picayune even compared Obama with President George W. Bush, who visited the area 13 times after the federal hurricane response became a signature failure of his administration.

“Say what you will about former President George W. Bush and his administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath — the man knew how to put together a post-Katrina White House visit to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,” wrote the newspaper’s Jonathan Tilove. “They were exhaustive, exhausting, sun-up-to-sundown, sometimes multiday and multistate affairs.”

Obama’s day will begin Thursday with a visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward. In the afternoon, he’ll hold a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans Lakefront campus. Soon after that, he’ll depart for San Francisco, where he will attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

On Friday, Obama will head to College Station, Texas, where he will attend a presidential forum on community service hosted by former President George H.W. Bush and the Points of Light Institute at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.